What's this? A chapter getting out on time? What a concept! That said, this feels kind of messy for reasons I can't really place, so let me know if anything feels obviously wrong. I'm recovering from a nasty cold so there's a pretty good chance I missed something.

On an entirely different note, if I made an ask blog connected to this story would anyone follow/ask stuff? Let me know here, or go poke me on tumblr at lessinkmoregraphite. I'll probably say something there if I end up doing anything.

So let me know, and enjoy the story!

Shadow was watching TV at home when he felt the couch shift next to him. He didn't bother looking up, being engrossed in the documentary currently playing and not too interested in the new presence. If they wanted his attention, they'd have to ask for it.

"I heard you were wondering about my ability to use chaos."

He turned, surprised by the unexpected speaker, only to meet slit-pupiled lime green eyes. Mephiles sat against the opposite arm rest, one foot casually crossed over the opposite knee and cheek resting on his fist. His expression could only be described as smug, though how he managed it without a mouth Shadow wasn't quite sure.

"That's correct," Shadow said, realizing a response was probably expected of him. "Are you...?"

"There's not much to tell," Mephiles said with a shrug. "I never used chaos before my sort of reformation, so it's not something I have experience with. Which probably answers your question, not that you really needed me to help with something so simple. After all, you're a professional when it comes to collecting information, isn't that right?"

Shadow narrowed his eyes, detecting subtle traces of mockery in Mephiles' words. "By some standards, perhaps," he said, "but that hardly helps when only one person knows the information I seek. In this case, you."

"Shame. Collecting the information is sometimes easier when you tell people what you want it for, you know?" He raised a pointed brow after the comment.

"Where are you going with this?" Shadow allowed his tone to shift toward a growl, fully aware that Mephiles' behavior was intentionally provocative when regressed, but not caring all that much.

"Nowhere particular," he said with a shrug, though the glint in his eyes said otherwise. "Then again, neither are you."

"You're welcome to provide further information," Shadow said pointedly. "It would certainly simplify matters. But you're not likely to do so that easily. Correct?"

"Of course not. Despite my other self's attitude, we are still enemies."

"If you're so insistent on seeing it that way, I suppose I can't change your mind."

Mephiles paused, hand falling from his face. "Sorry?"

Shadow didn't so much as blink. "I have trouble believing you're truly acting as our enemy if you insist on bothering us. Wouldn't it be better to convince us you're an ally, then strike when you get the chance?"

Mephiles stared at him, then narrowed his eyes. "An interesting theory. One I will neither confirm nor deny. Farewell."

Shadow waited for him to vanish, then turned his documentary back on.

XXX

Mephiles watched Tails work in silence, settled comfortably on a backward chair. The fox was more than a little uncomfortable with the prickling feeling of eyes on him but was more satisfied with his victory regarding the counter debate. Said victory being that Mephiles still acknowledged his request to not sit on the counter while regressed.

Anyway, the silence was preferable to the nonsense Mephiles usually spewed at them while regressed. He'd mostly quit it around Tails after it became clear that he wasn't getting a reaction, and the fox was actually grateful to those anti-bullying lectures from when he was smaller. The fact was, nothing he'd said or done was more than irritating, which while odd was kind of reassuring. His first reaction to the regressions had been distinct unease, if not outright fear - if Mephiles was turning into their enemy again, what might that mean for them? But as far as he could tell nothing bad was happening. He wasn't about to let Mephiles out of his sight during a regression, but his concern about being alone with the hopefully reformed villain was somewhat alleviated.

The door banged open in the other room. "Hey Tails!"

Oh no. Knuckles. Tails gave Mephiles a meaningful look and mimed zipping his lips, optimistically interpreting the other's blank stare as agreement, before returning the greeting. "Hey Knuckles! We're in the lab."

"When are you not?" Knuckles said with a note of good-natured grumpiness. He paused when he noticed Mephiles. "Oh. You're here too?"

"I am," Mephiles said, neglecting to offer any further details.

Tails noticed Knuckles' dissatisfaction with the response and quickly moved to intervene. "He sometimes comes to watch me work. Anyway, if you're checking on the progress of that project you asked me to work on, I've not gotten much further than last time."

"Nah, just stopping by to say hi." He squinted suspiciously at Mephiles. "Something's different about you."

Mephiles shrugged and leaned his chin against the chair back. "Exhaustion? I haven't slept very well this past week."

"Nah, it's not that. Are you... wearing contacts? Cause I swear it looks like your eyes are glowing. And kind of snakey."

Tails was becoming increasingly concerned about this conversation. They'd agreed not to talk about regressions, but if Knuckles kept pushing...

Mephiles seemed to not have quite the same concerns. He sat up and narrowed his eyes at Knuckles. "Why don't you just come out and say it? Subtlety is not your strong suit."

They had a glare-off for a long moment. Surprisingly, Knuckles' patience seemed to snap first. "You've been remembering things," he growled, "and I've seen you like this a few times. It's linked, and you know it. Why haven't you mentioned it?"

"He's not the only one who knows," Tails said, shrinking back as Knuckles' attention snapped to him. "It's, uh, me, Sonic, Silver, and Shadow all know. So we can keep an eye out. It's all safe, you know?" He winced internally at his wording, but Mephiles didn't look bothered. Rather, he looked annoyed, but that seemed more directed at Knuckles than him.

Said echidna appeared to be putting two and two together and not liking the result he was getting. "Wait. Then it is dangerous?"

"Hardly," Mephiles said in a bored tone. "I'm slowly regaining access to sealed memories, so they thought it was best if someone keep an eye out. After all, regaining memories of the adventure wasn't exactly easy on anyone when you lot did it, correct?"

"I guess not," Knuckles said, looking like he was buying the story... until he saw how nervous Tails looked and his suspicions all came back. "That's not all, is it?"

Tails looked at Mephiles helplessly. The dark being heaved a tired sigh. "You should really work on your poker face, fox. It's bound to cause trouble one of these days if you can't learn to keep a secret properly. And no, that's not all. But the four of them decided they had the situation under control, and alarming the rest of you would be pointless. Not that I much care."

"Are you going to say what else is going on or not?!"

Tails had curled in on himself at Mephiles' comment, but uncurled a bit at Knuckles' frustrated response. No need for him to leave without correct information if they'd already come this far anyway. "He's regressing. At least, we call it regression. It's when all his memories come back for a little bit and his personality sort of reverts to how it was on our adventure."

Knuckles tensed up, looking at Mephiles with no small amount of apprehension. "And you just let him run around like that?"

"There's frequently someone around when I regress," Mephiles pointed out, voice a slow drawl. "Besides, there's hardly enough time for me to do much of anything, even if I wanted to. These things have never even lasted a full hour."

"He's right," Tails said when Knuckles glanced at him for confirmation. "It seems to be caused by those energy spikes I was measuring, and none of them last very long. And it's not like he spends much time on his own." He pretended not to notice Mephiles rolling his eyes behind Knuckles' back. Okay, maybe his information was out of date there, but he'd given enough away as it was.

Knuckles looked doubtful, but seemed more or less appeased by that explanation. "Alright then. As long as you're careful, I don't see why it should be a big deal. But you oughta tell the others."

"Not until we have more information." Tails made his voice as firm as possible for that statement. He didn't want to spread this around until he was sure it was accurate and not just scaremongering. All he could do at the moment was make them scared of what Mephiles might do, which wouldn't help anyone.

At least Knuckles seemed willing to accept that response. "Well... okay. But you had better be careful."

"Believe me, I will be."

With one last glare at Mephiles, he turned and stomped out of the lab. A moment later the front door slammed open and shut.

"Well that went well," Mephiles said, and promptly passed out before Tails could ask whether he was joking. The fox sighed and went to adjust him to a more comfortable position. He always complained of feeling tense after a regression, no need to make it worse.

Mephiles resettled, Tails turned to the task of notifying the others. Better they find out now than be surprised later.

XXX

Mephiles woke slowly, noting he was now on Tails' couch with his usual detachment. After a point, finding himself in new locations with a blank in his memory became less concerning than it probably should be. He focused instead on stretching out, since as per usual he was tense as heck. Honestly, his other self could stand to relax a bit.

Then again, if he was right about why he was so tense... well, he didn't think about that often. After all, the more often he thought it, the more likely he was to remember it while regressed. And that wouldn't be good under any circumstances. Especially if he was right.

Ritual stretching completed, Mephiles stood and headed for the lab, where he could hear several voices he'd been trying and failing to ignore. While he wasn't exactly eager to get involved with whatever conversation was going on in there... well, it was fortunate he hadn't copied Blaze's form or he'd be dead several times over.

He paused and leaned against the doorway, waiting for someone to notice him. Though it seemed like it might take a bit if he didn't speak up. Sonic and Shadow were locked in a stare-off for some reason while Tails watched, fidgeting uncertainly.

After a moment, Shadow nodded. "Very well then. Hopefully Silver arrives soon, though, because I'm very curious about what could be important enough to call us all here on such short notice."

"I'm a bit curious myself," Mephiles said, deciding it was high time he made his presence known. He didn't especially want to eavesdrop but none of them were paying much attention to their surroundings.

Sonic in particular jumped a good foot in the air and whirled to face him, wide-eyed shock fading into a wavery grin. "Oh hey Meph. Uh, how much of that did you hear?"

"Just Shadow's comment after your staring match. I only woke up a couple minutes ago."

"You were regressed for half an hour," Tails informed him, "and passed out for a little less than that. Shadow helped me carry you to the game room because I'm not entirely sure you could breathe in the position you were in. And you should definitely hear this too."

The door opening caught everyone's attention, so they were all looking up when Silver entered. The telekinetic glanced around and rolled his eyes. "Right. Still the last one to arrive I see. So what's up? Your message sounded pretty urgent."

"It kind of is," Tails said, falling into a more serious demeanor. "Knuckles came by while Mephiles was regressed earlier. He made some pointed comments about him seeming different and, well, now he knows about regressions. He's not gonna tell anyone else, but I thought everyone should know."

Silver frowned. "That's... not good, but not as bad as I'd thought. Couldn't you have told us by message?"

Tails shrugged. "I needed help carrying Mephiles. He kind of passed out sitting on a chair backward. And, uh..." He turned to Sonic, looking somewhere between sheepish and forlorn. "I feel like we haven't talked much recently, so I thought maybe we could all hang out for a bit?"

Several indistinct emotions chased each other across Sonic's face before he grinned and leaned forward to ruffle Tails' head fur. "Sure thing, buddy! You know I'm always happy to spend time with you, just say the word."

Tails mock-scowled and batted his hands away, but he was grinning as well.

Mephiles smiled a bit as Sonic began plotting potential activities with Tails, dragging Silver into it and trying to add Shadow to their planning circle. Fortunately that particular lost cause allowed Mephiles to fade into the background and just watch the others play-arguing.

He could worry about Knuckles some other time. For the moment he wanted to enjoy spending a little time with everyone.

So last week I learned sleep deprived me is evil. That said, have the food for thought that is this chapter.